TORONTO -- The two largest cable operators, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, appear to be taking somewhat divergent paths on an ambitious next-generation architecture for the cable industry, frustrating the original goals of network designers, aggravating equipment vendors, and potentially driving up equipment production costs, officials said at the SCTE Canadian Summit.

Peter Cramton, an expert on spectrum auctions, said Friday he is “optimistic” about the outlook for a voluntary incentive auction. The key to attracting wireless industry interest, he said, is forcing broadcasters to repack their spectrum to make it valuable in multiple markets, he said at a Media Access Project conference.

The FCC should delay an incentive auction of TV spectrum for at least a decade to give broadcasters time to start using a more efficient signal modulation standard, a midsize broadcaster’s CEO said Friday. Jim Goodmon of Capitol Broadcasting, known as a maverick for pushing technology and other changes before broadcasters do, told us he thinks that the industry can soon agree to use OFDM to replace the 8-VSB standard used for digital broadcasts.

The FCC’s order reducing high-cost Universal Service Fund support to competitive eligible telecommunications carriers violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the telcos’ Fifth Amendment protection against illegal takings, 13 of the CETCs said in a petition released Friday. In language that suggests the carriers are considering seeking an injunction, the telcos said they “are each adversely affected” by the Wireline Bureau’s “decision to retroactively modify the cap level.” The petition’s signers were AST Telecom, Bluegrass Cellular, Cellular South Licenses, Union Telephone, Corr Wireless, East Kentucky Networks, Illinois Valley Cellular, Cellular One, Commnet Wireless, MTPCS, PR Wireless, Georgia RSA #8 Partnership and Allied Wireless.

Moving TV stations to lower channel slots won’t let them broadcast to mobile devices, which many in the industry are banking on to help keep the medium competitive with newer media, agreed numerous executives and technical consultants to broadcasters. FCC officials have been saying publicly for some time that they hope to repack some TV stations into the VHF band. That’s part of the commission’s ongoing effort to reallot 120 MHz from TV to wireless broadband, something drawing concern from broadcasters who don’t want to be adversely affected if they don’t agree to move.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., is undaunted by a likely presidential veto of any bill to overturn FCC net neutrality rules, he said in an interview for C-SPAN’s The Communicators. The House Communications Subcommittee chairman isn’t worried about the lack of industry support either, he said. Walden outlined plans to aggressively pursue other communications issues once net neutrality is resolved.

Vonage is pressing the FCC to allow for direct access to phone numbers from the North American Numbering Plan or the pooling administrator. In a letter dated Tuesday but published on the FCC website Thursday, Vonage renewed a 2005 petition for direct access to numbers, saying that it will help Vonage “deploy innovative services” and “drive down costs” to customers.

Data roaming is not just a competitive issue but also directly affects consumers, a group of wireless carriers pushing for a data roaming mandate said Thursday. During a press conference, executives with Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and other competitors to AT&T and Verizon Wireless called for action at the commission’s April 7 meeting on a data roaming order. It remains unclear when Chairman Julius Genachowski will ask for a vote on an order called for in the National Broadband Plan (CD March 9 p2).

FCC Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus said delivering the end product of the National Broadband Plan will take time. Speaking late Wednesday at an FCBA event on the first anniversary of the plan’s announcement, he focused on its success to date. FCC and industry panelists said compromise is needed to make the plan a success. Some said they're cautiously optimistic that the regulator and those it regulates will come together to make the plan work out well. Industry officials disagreed on ways to open up cable set-top boxes to retail competition to stimulate broadband adoption, and whether rules requiring what’s called AllVid are needed.

TORONTO -- As far as Comcast Chief Technology Officer Tony Werner is concerned, the future of media is all about digital rights management (DRM), not the ownership of devices, discs, and other physical assets. Speaking at the SCTE Canadian Summit this week, he argued that “physical media will disappear” by 2020 as “digital assets move to the cloud.” Rather than continue to buy new computer hard drives, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, and other devices, or assemble sets of DVDs, CDs, tapes, and books, he said consumers will buy the rights to use digital media content.